Participants in a roundtable on minority employment Friday listed education, transportation and a lack of investment in technology as barriers keeping the minority unemployment rate high.

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch hosted the event at the offices of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

“Right now we have an absolutely unacceptable rate of minority unemployment, particularly in the city of Milwaukee,” she said. “You all are on the front lines of job creation and you understand, perhaps more than anyone, how getting folks who are minorities employed lifts up the whole state, not just the urban areas.”

A recent study by Marc Levine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that, as of 2010, only 44.7 percent of black males age were employed.

Much of the problem comes from a lack of proper education and training, participants said. Children are graduating high school without basic math skills and are discouraged from pursuing jobs in manufacturing, said Rep. Mark Honadel of South Milwaukee.

Reggie Newson, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said the state is working on programs to encourage “dual enrollment,” where students take courses from technical colleges while still in high school. It also hopes to encourage “individual learning plans” where parents, educators and students identify the students’ skills as early as fifth grade and figure out what kind of courses they should take in secondary school and beyond.

Adonica Randall of technology consulting firm Abaxent LLC said job programs focus so much on advanced manufacturing that technology is forgotten. She said her business has 92 jobs open, and she can’t find qualified Wisconsin workers to fill them.

“At the end of the day, we’re in global competition, and we’ve got to focus on the technology piece,” she said.

Carla Cross, executive director of The Business Council Inc., said the community should find a way to improve public transportation or attract businesses to neighborhoods where minorities live. The Business Council is an affiliate of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce that works to increase opportunities for minority-owned companies.

She pointed to the Menomonee Valley and Century City, a redevelopment of the former A.O. Smith and Tower Automotive facilities, as examples of developments that can create jobs in Milwaukee’s core.